Second Fatal Florida Alligator Attack

Authorities Investigating If 3rd Woman Found Dead Also Alligator Victim

(AP)  An alligator fatally attacked a woman in the second deadly gator attack in Florida in a week. Authorities also were investigating whether a third woman found dead in another part of the state was also the victim of an alligator.

The woman killed Sunday had been staying at a secluded cabin near a springhead that feeds into Lake George, said Marion County Fire-Rescue Capt. Joe Amigliore. The area is in northern Florida, about 40 miles southeast of Gainesville.

"The people she was staying with came around and found her inside the gator's mouth," Amigliore said. "They jumped into the water and somehow pulled her out of the gator's mouth."

The woman, whose name was not released, was pronounced dead at the scene. Her stepfather, who had tried to help her, was treated on the scene for a hand injury, said Amigliore.

On Tuesday, a woman in south Florida was killed by an alligator when she went for a jog near a canal in Sunrise, near Fort Lauderdale. That alligator was later captured.

Authorities were searching for the alligator from north Florida attack on Sunday night. A message left for a Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission spokeswoman was not immediately returned.

Meanwhile, authorities near St. Petersburg, Florida, were investigating a third possible alligator attack after finding a woman's body in a canal. The 43-year-old was found with animal bites that were consistent with an alligator, but the cause of death has not yet been confirmed, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.

There have been 18 confirmed fatal alligator attacks in Florida since 1948, not counting either of Sunday's incidents, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission official said earlier in the week.